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Julia Annas

University of Arizona
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Harvard University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1972
Areas of Specialization
Virtues and Vices
Areas of Interest
Virtues and Vices
History of Western Philosophy
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, Misc
  •  94
    Morality, Ancient and Modern
    In The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press. pp. 439-456. 1993.
    Ancient and modern ethical theories are compared, with renewed warning against reading modern assumptions into ancient texts. The book's discussions of ancient theories supports the position that ancient concerns about virtue can reasonably be compared with modern concerns with morality, and that the chief difference is the eudaimonistic structure of ancient theories. Some contrasts with modern theories are briefly drawn.
  •  97
    Epicurus: Virtue, Pleasure and Time
    In The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press. pp. 334-350. 1993.
    Epicurus, in claiming that happiness is really pleasure, produces an account of pleasure as tranquility tailored to allow it to be our final end. This greatly revises our attitudes to death, particularly premature death, to particular pleasures and pains, and to variation in our activities, which are to produce tranquility.
    EpicurusEpicureans: PleasureEpicureans: Virtues
  •  57
    Justice
    In The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press. pp. 291-321. 1993.
    Justice is a virtue of both character and institutions. Epicurus treats these separately but, it is argued, consistently. The Stoic theory of natural law arguably depoliticizes institutional questions, treating politics as merely one concern of an individual among others. Aristotle deals with both issues of justice separately; later Aristotelians, influenced by the Stoics, have little to say about institutions.
    EpicurusEpicureans: Justice and Politics
  •  67
    Antiochus: The Intuitive View
    In The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press. pp. 180-187. 1993.
    Antiochus’ is a hybrid theory, seeking convergence between Aristotelian and Stoic accounts of nature. He aims to retain the Stoic developmental account of virtue as the culmination of a natural progression, but tries to make the result more intuitive, arguably not successfully.
  •  83
    Happiness, Success and What Matters
    In The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press. pp. 329-333. 1993.
    Ancient ethical theories all assume that we are seeking our happiness when we try to live a moral life. This produces considerable revision of the intuitive content of happiness, different theories making more or less revisionary transformations of its content.
  •  82
    Introduction
    In The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press. pp. 3-24. 1993.
    The book's methodology is set out: we must be critically aware of the theoretical assumptions we bring to the study of ancient ethics, or we risk importing anachronism. The limits of the ancient evidence should also be respected. We must also be aware of the structures of modern ethical theories and prepared to find that ancient theories differ. The ancient traditions and their major sources are listed: Aristotle, Stoics, Sceptics, Cyrenaics, Epicurus and hybrid theories.
    EpicurusEpicureans: Ethics, Misc
  •  113
    Aristotelian Responses
    In The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press. pp. 412-425. 1993.
    Later hybrid theories in Antiochus and Arius Didymus restate an Aristotelian position on the insufficiency of virtue for happiness, with some attempted compromise with the Stoic view, but these attempts, though interesting, are not successful.
  •  70
    Happiness and the Demands of Virtue
    In The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press. pp. 426-436. 1993.
    Ancient ethical theories produce differing accounts of happiness, depending on their position on the nature and importance of virtue. These are important debates, recognizably on the same topic as modern debates about the nature and importance of morality. In the ancient debates Aristotelian and Stoic views can both draw on compelling arguments, and no simple resolution is obvious.
  •  1
    Ethics and morality
    In Lawrence C. Becker & Charlotte B. Becker (eds.), Encyclopedia of ethics, Routledge. pp. 1--485. 2001.
    Ethics
  • Index auctorum modernorum
    with Francesca Alesse, Keimpe Algra, Matthias Baltes, Jonathan Barnes, Thomas Benatouil, Mary Blundell, Susanne Bobzien, Mauro Bonazzi, and Paul Boyancé
    In Mauro Bonazzi & Christoph Helmig (eds.), Platonic Stoicism, stoic Platonism: the dialogue between Platonism and Stoicism in antiquity, Leuven University Press. pp. 289. 2007.
  •  3
    Epictetus on moral perspectives
    In Theodore Scaltsas & Andrew S. Mason (eds.), The philosophy of Epictetus, Oxford University Press. pp. 140-152. 2007.
    Epictetus frequently tells us to remember our duties as son, brother, town councilor and the like, and thus to think of our duties in terms of a perspective embedded in our social lives. However, he also tells us to think in terms of the perspective of universal reason, from which the Stoic thinks of his duties as being owed to all rational humans. How are these two perspectives to be related in Epictetus' thought? This chapter argues that it is important that we think of the universal perspecti…Read more
    Epictetus
  •  4
    Virtue ethics: What kind of naturalism?
    In Stephen Mark Gardiner (ed.), Virtue ethics, old and new, Cornell University Press. pp. 11--29. 2005.
    Moral Character
  •  43
    The Guardians and the Law in Plato’s Republic
    In David Keyt & Christopher Shields (eds.), Principles and Praxis in Ancient Greek Philosophy: Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy in Honor of Fred D. Miller, Jr, Springer Verlag. pp. 99-113. 2024.
    I begin with some points from the Republic which are familiar, perhaps over-familiar, to everyone, and then raise an issue about the role of law in Kallipolis which points us to something not so familiar. I hope that this contribution to honoring Fred Miller will lead to the kind of discussion that his own work has stimulated over the years, across an incredibly wide range of topics. I am honored and delighted to contribute to honoring Fred, and hope that this paper will be worthy of its inclusi…Read more
    Plato
  •  122
    Virtue and Law in Plato and Beyond
    Oxford University Press. 2017.
    Julia Annas explores how Plato's account of the relation of virtue to law developed, and how his ideas were taken up by Cicero and by Philo of Alexandria. She shows that, rather than rejecting the account given in his Republic, Plato develops in the Laws a more careful and sophisticated version of that account.
    Natural Law Theory
  •  1
    Cicero's de Finibus: Philosophical Approaches (edited book)
    with Gábor Betegh
    Cambridge University Press. 2015.
    Cicero is increasingly recognised as a highly intelligent contributor to the ongoing ethical debates between Epicureans, Stoics and other schools. In this work on the fundamentals of ethics his learning as a scholar, his skill as a lawyer and his own passion for the truth result in a work which dazzles us in its presentation of the debates and at the same time exhibits the detachment of the ancient sceptic. Many kinds of reader will find themselves engaged with Cicero as well as with the ethical…Read more
    Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy, MiscEpicurusAncient Greek and Roman EthicsCiceroEpicureans…Read more
  •  3
    Cicero: On Moral Ends (edited book)
    with Raphael Woolf
    Cambridge University Press. 2001.
    This 2001 translation makes one of the most important texts in ancient philosophy available to modern readers. Cicero is increasingly being appreciated as an intelligent and well-educated amateur philosopher, and in this work he presents the major ethical theories of his time in a way designed to get the reader philosophically engaged in the important debates. Raphael Woolf's translation does justice to Cicero's argumentative vigour as well as to the philosophical ideas involved, while Julia Ann…Read more
    Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy, MiscCicero
  •  65
    Developing the Virtues: Integrating Perspectives (edited book)
    with Darcia Narvaez and Nancy E. Snow
    Oxford University Press USA. 2016.
    This book features new essays by philosophers, psychologists, and a theologian on the important topic of virtue development. The essays engage with work from multiple disciplines and thereby seek to bridge disciplinary divides. The volume is a significant contribution to the emerging interdisciplinary field of virtue development studies.
    Moral Character
  •  120
    Plato's Republic: Critical Essays
    with Richard Kraut, John M. Cooper, Jonathan Lear, Iris Murdoch, C. D. C. Reeve, David Sachs, Arlene W. Saxonhouse, C. C. W. Taylor, James O. Urmson, Gregory Vlastos, and Bernard Williams
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1997.
    Bringing between two covers the most influential and accessible articles on Plato's Republic, this collection illuminates what is widely held to be the most important work of Western philosophy and political theory. It will be valuable not only to philosophers, but to political theorists, historians, classicists, literary scholars, and interested general readers
    Plato: Republic
  •  21
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume I: 1983
    Oxford University Press. 1983.
    An annual publication which publishes original articles, some of substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles of major books.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  38
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume II: 1984
    Oxford University Press. 1984.
    An annual publication which publishes original articles, some of substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles of major books.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  49
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume III: 1985
    Oxford University Press. 1986.
    An annual publication which publishes original articles, some of substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles of major books.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  129
    Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
    Oxford University Press. 2000.
    The tradition of ancient philosophy is a long, rich and varied one, in which a constant note is that of discussion and argument. This book introduces readers to some ancient debates to get them to engage with the ancient developments of some themes. Getting away from the presentation of ancient philosophy as a succession of Great Thinkers, the book gives a sense of the freshness and liveliness of ancient philosophy, and of its wide variety of themes and styles.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  97
    Methods of Interpreting Plato and his Dialogues: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Supplementary Volume, 1992
    with James C. Klagge
    Clarendon Press. 1992.
    In this volume, a number of renowned scholars of Plato reflect upon their interpretive methods. Topics covered include the use of ancient authorities in interpreting Plato's dialogues, Plato's literary and rhetorical style, his arguments and characters, and his use of the dialogue form.
    Plato: Interpretive Strategies
  •  51
    Virtue and happiness: essays in honour of Julia Annas (edited book)
    with Rachana Kamtekar
    Oxford University Press. 2012.
    This special volume of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy presents sixteen specially written essays on virtue and happiness, and the treatment of these topics by thinkers from the fifth century BC to the third century AD. It is published in honour of Julia Annas--one of the leading scholars in the field.
    Moral Character
  •  44
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume X: 1992
    Clarendon Press. 1992.
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is an annual publication which includes original articles, which may be of substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles of major books. Contributors to this volume; Jonathan Barnes, Roger Crisp, T.H. Irwin, Christopher Janaway, Richard J. Ketchum, Voula Tsouna McKirahan, Martha Nussbaum, Dirk Obbink, and Allan Silverman.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  23
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume VIII: 1990
    Clarendon Press. 1991.
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is an annual publication which includes original articles, which may be of substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles of major books. All the contributors to this volume are based in the US, except for David Bostock (a well-established Oxford author) who is at Merton College, Oxford, and Eric Lewis who is at King's College London.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  45
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume VI: 1988
    Clarendon Press. 1989.
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is an annual publication which includes original articles, some of substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles of major books. Contributors include Mary Margaret Mackenzie, Aryeh Finkelberg, Charles H. Kahn, Christopher Shields, Paul Woodruff, Christopher Gill, Rosalind Hursthouse, G.E.R Lloyd, Henry Maconi, and David Bostock.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  37
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume V: 1987
    Clarendon Press. 1987.
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is an annual publication containing original articles, which may be of substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles of major books. Contributors to Volume V: Thomas C. Brickhouse, Theodor Ebert, Yahei Kanayama, A. C. Lloyd, P. Mitsis, R.W. Sharples, Nicholas D. Smith, Charlotte Stough, C. C. W. Taylor, and Gregory Vlastos.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  18
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Volume VII: 1989
    Clarendon Press. 1990.
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is an annual publication which includes original articles, which may be of substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles of major books.
    Classical Greek Philosophy
  •  3
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Supplementary Volume: 1988
    with Robert H. Grimm
    Clarendon Press. 1988.
    This special supplementary volume of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy contains the proceedings of the Colloquium on Ancient Philosophy held at Oberlin, Ohio in 1986. The exceptionally high quality of the papers, and the format of speaker, reply, and speaker's reply, has resulted in a volume which furthers some issues which are currently the object of keen controversy in ancient philosophy. Contributors include Michael Frede, Terence Irwin, and Martha Nussbaum.
    Classical Greek Philosophy